Jim Ross recently appeared on E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness (via wrestlinginc.com), here are the highlights…

On The Rock’s Confidence : “He’s a different breed of cat, as you boys know.” Ross explained, “and he’s very special in a lot of ways. I never had anybody that basically hit me right between the eyes with a statement of, ‘I’m going to be your top guy’ when he hadn’t even made his first trip to Stamford [Connecticut] I don’t think. So, I mean, he had ‘it’ going for him and confidence in where he wanted to go. He had a direction. He knew what road he wanted to travel and not like anyone else who is human on the road, the road is the road, but, professionally, he knew just what he wanted and nothing was going to stop him.”

On Rock’s Relationship With Vince McMahon: “I think, guys, when they come to work for WWE, the best thing that they can do, on a legitimate, organic, as real as it can be basis, have some sort of rapport with Vince. You have to have a rapport built on respect.” Ross continued, “don’t confront, converse, because if you confront him, you’re S.O.L. It’s disrespectful and it’s not the place to be disrespectful unless you’re just a dumbass. That’s how that worked out, but that’s the deal. The Rock got to that level of having a good rapport with Vince really, really quick.” Ross elaborated, “I mean, they had their grandpas, The High Chief [Peter Maivia] to talk about, or Rocky Johnson, and The Rock himself. And, of course, Vince is a smart guy – he saw what we had. He knew. He knew. When you get Secretariat, you welcome him in the barn.”

Edge on Building a Relationship With Vince: “If Vince doesn’t know who you are and doesn’t know the type of work ethic you have, and doesn’t know the type of character you have, how is he going to know whether to invest and be able to feel confident to invest in that, not just that character on the screen, but that person behind the character?” Edge asked. “And that, to me, is an important aspect that I think a lot of people in the industry, whether they assume it’s politicking or ass-kissing, it’s not! Any boss of any company is going to want to know that if they are going to promote that person.”

Christian on Building a Relationship With Vince: “When you’re a younger guy and you go in there [to talk to McMahon], it can be intimidating, right, when you go in there for the first time and have a conversation with Vince?” Christian added, “and then, you realize after he enjoys having that conversation and even if you go in there with ideas and he doesn’t necessarily agree with them, or he just wants to stick with whatever the plan is, or if he doesn’t agree with your position on something, but you had that professional conversation, I think he even respects the fact that you care enough to go in and talk.”